Nucleation phenomena have a great importance in many areas of science. However, the main theoretical tool to analyse these phenomena, the classical nucleation theory (CNT), has known weaknesses. A decade ago a nucleation theorem based correction to CNT was developed [McGraw, R., Laaksonen, A., 1996. Scaling properties of the critical nucleus in classical and molecular-based theories of vapor–liquid nucleation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 2754–2757]. We have analysed experimental nucleation rate data of two homologous series of molecular fluids in terms of this scaling relation. Our first results suggest possible universal functional form for correction to the temperature dependence of CNT. 相似文献
This paper reports results from centrifuge tests designed to investigate capillary rise in soils subjected to different gravitational fields. The experimental programme is part of the EU-funded NECER project (Network of European Centrifuges for Environmental Geotechnic Research), whose objective is to investigate the appropriateness of geotechnical centrifuge modelling for the investigation of geoenvironmental problems, particularly with reference to partially saturated soils. The tests were performed at the geotechnical centrifuge laboratories of Cardiff, Bochum, Manchester, and LCPC in Nantes. The aim was to determine the scaling laws of capillary rise under both equilibrium and transient conditions.
In all laboratories, column wetting tests in fine poorly graded sands (Congleton Sand, Bochum Normsand, HPF5 Sand, and Fontaineblau Sand) were performed. Capillary rise above the phreatic surface of the sand model was distinguished in a continuous capillary zone (completely saturated) and a discontinuous capillary zone (partially saturated).
The Cardiff Geotechnical Centrifuge Laboratory used matrix potential probes to follow the capillary rise of the continuous zone and, therefore, determine the suction above the phreatic zone during centrifuge testing. At Bochum, two cameras were used for optical and volumetric measurements, in order to follow the rise of the visible wetting front (upper limit of discontinuous zone) in the sand within the sample column. At Manchester, the movement of the wetting front was observed by video cameras over periods up to 8 h, whereas in LCPC pore pressure transducers recorded the changes in pressure caused by capillarity.
A simple centrifuge similitude law for capillary rise in these sands has been established and the kinetic phenomena have been measured as a function of the gravitational field. The results from these experiments verify that both the continuous and discontinuous capillary zones are scaled at a factor 1/N whereas the time for rise seems to be scaled at a factor 1/N2. This research suggests that capillary phenomena can be modelled using a geotechnical centrifuge. Therefore, centrifuge testing can be a useful tool for future modelling of boundary value problems involving complex transport phenomena. 相似文献
We investigate the initial rupture process of microearthquakes to reveal relationships between nucleation region sizes and eventual earthquake sizes. In order to obtain high quality waveform data, we installed a trigger recording system with a sampling frequency of 10 kHz at the base of a deep borehole at the Nojima Fault, Japan. We analyze waveform data of 31 events around the borehole, with seismic moment ranging from 4.2 × 109 Nm to 7.1 × 1011 Nm. We use both a circular crack model with an accelerating rupture velocity (SK model) [Sato, T., Kanamori, H., 1999. Beginning of earthquakes modeled with the Griffith's fracture criterion, Bull. Seism. Soc. Am., 89, 80-93.], which generates a slow initial phase of velocity pulse, and a circular crack model with a constant rupture velocity (SH model) [Sato, T, Hirasawa, T., 1973. Body wave spectra from propagating shear cracks, J. Phys. Earth, 21, 415-431.], which generates a ramp-like velocity pulse. Source parameters of these two models are estimated by waveform inversion of the first half cycle of the observed velocity pulse applying both a grid search and a non-linear least squares method. 14 of 31 events are never reproduced by the SH model with a constant Q operator. But SK model with a constant Q operator provides a size of the pre-existing crack, corresponding to the size of the nucleation regions, and a size of the eventual crack. We recognize that (i) the eventual seismic moment is approximately scaled as the cube of the size of pre-existing cracks, (ii) the eventual seismic moment is scaled as the cube of the size of eventual cracks, and (iii) the size of eventual cracks is roughly proportional to the size of pre-existing cracks. We, thus, conclude that the size of eventual earthquakes is controlled by the size of the nucleation regions. 相似文献
